Same antenna but missing channels

I have my antenna set up, with a splitter. One to Tablo, one to TV. TV receives channel 20 which is Ace and country. For whatever reason Tablo doesn’t receive.

If a Tivo sees a signal but has no guide data for it you can still watch that channel, Tablo appears to only have what is in their guide for a zip code. Go to zap2it see if the missing channel is in their guide for your zip (I assume won’t be) contact them give call sign, virtual and real channel, name. After they add it should soon show up in your Tablo.

I don’t believe that is correct. I remember when channels were being repacked in my area I had to ask Tablo to add a channel to the guide but my Tablo picked it up before they added it. None of my channels are in my zip code anyway. It seems more likely this is a reception problem.

@beastman
When doing the channel scan the Tablo will automatically add a check mark to channels that come in very well. You can manually select channels that don’t quite make the cut if you like. I recommend going back to rescan.

Blockquote [quote=“jimtablotv, post:3, topic:29485, full:true”]

I don’t believe that is correct. I remember when channels were being repacked in my area I had to ask Tablo to add a channel to the guide but my Tablo picked it up before they added it. None of my channels are in my zip code anyway. It seems more likely this is a reception p.
[/quote]
The tower isn’t in your zip but your zip and many around you are in the stations market, all dvr’s will use zip to determine what guide you get.

Yes the station must be in proximity to your zip code but your other assertion is incorrect. I was able to tune a channel that was not in my guide data. In fact Tablo shows you what it looks like when a channel doesn’t have guide data and they tell you how to request it.

https://support.tablotv.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002199143-Adding-Missing-Guide-Data#:~:text=If%20your%20Tablo%20is%20missing,check%20your%20live%20TV%20screen.

To the OP: You don’t need guide data to tune a channel.

Tablo will pick up whatever is available ITA even if no guide data. You can watch it by clicking on channel number. You can set manual recording. That is not what the problem is.

Channel 20.whatever is received on antenna and can watch on TV. I did a rescan of channels on Tablo and 20.nothing is there. Same antenna at same spot. Using a splitter.

Have you checked the signal strength and quality on the TV.

There are two possibilities, either the signal is just borderline and the Tablo’s internal splitter drops the signal over the digital cliff or the signal is so extremely strong that it comes in fine on the TV, but overwhelms the Tablo’s tuner. There have been documented cases where too strong of a signal has caused as much trouble as too weak of a signal for Tablo tuners.

Either way, try contacting @TabloSupport to see if they can learn anything from your Tablo’s internal logs.

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Yeah, I saw that in your first post good to know. I thought might be other way because I did not get all kind of nonsense with Tablo like I do with Tivo.

I’ll call support Monday

I assume you tried hooking antenna to only the Tablo already to see if weak signal is cause.

I’ll swap you.

My antenna is connect via a channelmaster 3414 to multiple OG tablo(s), hdhomerun 4k, and a fairly new sony.

The local CBS network added a new sun-channel. All the other sub-channels play with no problem - with a strong signal. My tablo(s) and hdhome 4k have no problem detecting and playing the new sub-channel. But my sony can’t even detect it.

maybe tablo support can either fix my sony or stop the tablo units from detecting it. that way every device will be symmetric.

I would try swapping the cables between the TV and Tablo then rescan to rule out connection issues. That’s the last trouble shooting option I have that you can do yourself assuming you have also tried restarting the Tablo. With electronics you always try a reboot no matter what the problem because… magic? :joy: It’s very unusual the channel would work on one device and be completely missing on the other. If the cable swap doesn’t work my only other thought is a nonstandard signal. There was a recent case of a radio station actually bricking a certain model radio in people’s cars because of an unusual broadcast so it isn’t a stretch.

Good luck and let us know what you find out!

EDIT: The article

Swapped cables but no change, maybe add am0p9fier to Tablo cabke

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In my limited experience if you can watch a channel and reception isn’t so bad it’s cutting out on one device the signal is strong enough for it to at least be recognized on another device attached to the same antenna. Maybe your TV just has a spectacular tuner.

I can see Tablo support was “paged” to this thread so give it a look on Monday before you call. They’ve always been good about answering questions when the office is open.

Have you confirmed it is on same real frequency? One of mine the main is 1 and it’s 3 subs each have different frequency (total 4) because of hosting.

All of the (sub-)channels are on 491 mhtz and positions 3,4,5,6,7,8. With the new one at position 8. And sony TV’s also have auto-tune. Select one channel and it auto-tunes all channels on that frequency. That usually detects new sub-channels but not this one.

Tablo is usually the one more sensitive to the broadcast metadata. But since the new sub-channel is oxygen I can probably live without more crime and murder shows on direct connect TV. I’ll use tablo or hdhome to get more blood and guts on this channel.

Looks like the reason Tablo doesn’t bring up all the stuff Tivo does is only shows things with PSIP, a channel added Newsmax has no data but does have ID (I assume from PSIP). Ironically Newsmax replaced one of those odd ones gave call sign for a FM radio station on other side of country and said FM where DT would be.

I would imagine all devices would automatically tune to different freq for a given channels subs… Obviously would not apply to you since all on same but if the missing had been different and weak could explain it missing. When I first received the Tablo tested the first week with a indoor antenna (had outdoor on something else) just to check out. After a lot of adjusting thought I had the best compromise between stations, started flipping thru channels saw one I planned to record things on breaking up, wondered why when it’s main channel and all it’s other subs were fine took me a few minutes to remember not only was it on different than main all of them were different.

How do I see real frequency? Derek is working on it. I think it is low power because when I unplug antenna the TV does not receive. Maybe an amplifier on Tablo coax

I think most of us just Google it by station call sign.
Example station
https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/tv-profile/wtol/more-public-files

I also wrote a script to pull information directly from my Roku TV a long time ago.

EDIT: Here is a URL you can use if you have a Roku TV. It should work with any brand. Just figure out the Roku IP adress and put it in the spot “RokuIPaddress”. You must be connected to the same network to use it.

http://RokuIPaddress:8060/query/tv-channels